Chewbacca | Wookieepedia | Fandom powered by Wikia "You two play fast and loose." "It's worked so far." ―Caluan Ematt, on Chewbacca and Han Solo's tactics [src] However, before they could depart for Tatooine to pay Jabba, Organa would ask Solo to run an errand for the Rebellion, which Chewbacca convinced him to accept—to rescue Lieutenant Caluan Ematt from Cyrkon . On the Falcon, the two made their way to the planet, only to find themselves confronted by the Vehement , which they avoided with a false IFF transponder , and landed in Motok . There, they were immediately attacked by some of Jabba's bounty hunters, including Captivator , which prompted Solo to accuse them of being "Rebels" and set them against ISB Commander Alecia Beck 's garrison. [11] Chewbacca slipped away with Solo to the Miss Fortune cantina , where they found their old friend Delia Leighton , to whom they asked about Ematt's location.

After she told them their destination and the password, Chewbacca and Solo rented a V-40 and went into a hotel, where they met Ematt, but were attacked by the bounty hunters again, as Leighton had revealed their location to save Curtis 's life. However, they escaped and made their way to the Falcon, only to be ambushed by Beck and more than forty stoormtroopers. [11] Chewbacca, Solo and Ematt confronted by Alecia Beck. Forced to surrender, Chewbacca, Solo and Ematt were taken into custody, with Beck focusing on Ematt and leaving Chewbacca and Solo to the stormtroopers. Unbeknownst to the Imperials, Solo noticed the Miss Fortune making their way to save them, but with the magnetic field activated, it would be pointless. Once aware of Solo's intentions, Chewbacca pretended to be angry at Solo and shoved him, sending him flying into a trooper to grab his E-11 blaster rifle and destroy the field generators, flooding the hangar with Cyrkon's toxic gases.

Soon enough, the Miss Fortune opened fire at the Imperials, and Chewbacca made his way to the Falcon to start the engines while Solo helped Ematt and recovered their weapons. [11] Soon in Cyrkon's orbit along with the Miss Fortune, they found themselves against the Vehement and eight TIE fighters. They engaged the starfighters , defeating several of them, until the Miss Fortune's took a hit that damaged its navicomputer; Chewbacca saw Solo's nobler side when he decided to cover the 1550-LEX space yacht to make a run for Cyrkon's atmosphere just as the Vehement's tractor beam advanced towards them. They resisted the beam by entering the planet's atmosphere themselves, while Leighton fled, and approached Motok in a dead-engine glide, daring Beck into catching the Falcon at the price of destroying the city with the tractor beam and turning Cyrkon against the Empire. As she desisted, the Falcon began its fall to the ground and the two pilots manually restarted the engines, just in time to avoid crashing into the city and escape.

[11] Andelm IV Edit Sometime later, he was on an important solo mission to deliver a box, when the flight stabilizer of his ship malfunctioned. Forced to crash-land on Andelm IV , Chewbacca went to a city to obtain a replacement and engaged a Besalisk vendor. Their deal was interrupted by a fugitive young girl, Zarro , who tried to sell her stolen speeder bike . The Besalisk, however, refused and tried to betray her to the planet's crime lord, Jaum . Chewbacca stopped him, though, by having the Besalisk sell him the stabilizer. However, he did not have enough credits to buy it. Subsequently, he went to a cantina and played sabacc, successfully doubling his credits. Chewbacca then noticed the girl from before, and helped her hide from Jaum's men. [19] Afterwards, Zarro followed him as he bought the stabilizer and tried to convince into helping her save her father and friends. Unable to delay his mission, Chewbacca repaired his ship, and changed his mind to leave the planet when Zarro mentioned her people had been enslaved by Jaum.

Unknown to Chewie and Zarro, Jaum was planning to export the Andelm beetle larvae to the Empire to be processed into Dedlanite , a substance used in the manufacture of blasters . [19] To maximise profits, Jaum also planned to sell his slave workforce to the Empire. [15] The following day, Zarro devised a plan to infiltrate Jaum's mine . She got Chewbacca to search for an open air vent for the slave miners to escape. Meanwhile, Zarro infiltrated the mine by allowing herself to be recaptured. Her plan was to locate a hollowed part of the mine. Keeping in touch by transmitter , Zarro told Chewie to find an open air vent. While struggling through the tunnel, the Wookiee was haunted by memories of his enslavement at the hands of the Trandoshans . Zarro's escape plan encountered a problem when she was caught by Jaum and his men. After the miners including Zarro's father Arrax objected to Jaum's plan, the gangster ordered his men to execute the miners. [15] Before Jaum's guards could carry out their execution, Chewie snuck up behind them and overpowered them with his bowcaster .

After meeting Zarro's father, Chewie joined forces with the miners to fight their way out of the mine. He refashioned a rod from a broken-down GNK power droid and used it to disable a wheeled battle droid . Shortly later, the Wookiee knocked out one of Jaum's henchmen with the derelict GNK power droid. Chewie eventually found his way to the mine's loading bay, which was full of crates of Andelm beetle larvae. However, Jaum's Shistavanen enforcer Tyvak fired on the incendiary larvae with his blaster , igniting an explosion that created a cave-in. [15] Despite Tyvak's efforts, Chewie and his friends managed to survive the explosion. Part of the Wookiee's left leg was scorched by fire but Zarro managed to douse it. Chewie and his friends then narrowly escaped a swarm of Andelm beetles. Chewie managed to used his bowcaster to collapse a girder, temporarily delaying the swarm but denying the miners their only way out in the process.

While heading to regroup with the other miners in a different section of the mine, Chewie encountered the guard he had knocked out with the GNK power droid. Upon recognizing the guard, he dropped the heavy droid chassis on the man, leaving him behind. [20] While the miners discussed a way of digging themselves out of the mine, Chewie came up with the idea of climbing out vertically through a sinkhole. While skeptical of the Wookiee's chance of success, the miners and Zarro agreed to support his plan. With much effort, Chewie managed to climb through the roots of a dead tree and topple it, creating a pit large enough for all the miners to climb up. Chewie then lowered a rope for all the miners to evacuate. Once everyone had reached the surface, Chewie and Zarro departed under the pretext of repairing his A-wing starfighter. [20] In truth, Zarro was planning to stop Jaum and the Empire from taking over Andelm IV. Enlisting Chewie's support, they traveled to the planet's spaceport .

There, they found a bunker that was inhabited by her blind friend Sevox and his protocol droid I-7 , who served as the "eyes" of the former. After examining Sevox's junkshop, Chewbacca came up with a plan to sabotage Jaum's plot to export Dedlanite to the Empire. [20] this plan involved fitting a decrepit R5 repair droid with explosives. Sevox thought Chewie and Zarro's plan had little chance of success but nonetheless agreed to drop them off at the spaceport. He also offered his bunker as a hiding place for Zarro and her friend. [21] After shooing away a group of child beggars, Chewie and Jaum infiltrated the spaceport disguised as Jaum's new war droid and a hooded alien . They soon discovered that the spaceport was being occupied by several stormtroopers , Scout troopers , and an AT-ST walker . Shortly later, they found Jaum supervising several stormtroopers who were loading crates of dedlanite into an Imperial landing craft . When Jaum demanded that Zarro take off her helmet, Chewie opened fire on the gangster and his stormtroopers.

After running out of ammunition, he took out the stormtroopers in hand to hand combat. [21] While Chewie exchanged fire with Jaum, Zarro managed to bring the rigged R5 droid " Boomer " aboard the shuttle. Chewie then fought with Tyvak but was trapped by the AT-ST walker. The Wookiee however activated a nearby engine which burned Tyvak alive and knocked out the Imperial walker's right cannon, causing it to topple to the ground. Meanwhile, Jaum managed to escape aboard the landing craft with the dedlanite and "Boomer." The two were overjoyed their plot had succeeded. However, their elation was short-lived and they were soon arrested by scout troopers reporting to the Imperial Commander Kai , the same officer who was interested in Jaum's dedlanite deal. [21] Per Commander Kai's orders, Chewie and Zarro were transported up to Kai's Imperial Star Destroyer in orbit above Andelm IV. On the way up, Chewie and Zarro managed to overpower their stormtrooper captors aboard the Imperial shuttle . After landing, Chewie knocked out an Imperial RA-7 protocol droid that Kai had sent to negotiate their surrender.

After knocking out the remaining stormtroopers clinging to his body, Kai agreed to listen to Zarro. [22] Zarro made up a story that Jaum was a fraudster who had come to scam Kai. She also claimed that he was a rebel spy and that he did not have a mining operation. To back up her story, Zarro told him that Jaum's "droid" "Boomer" was rigged with explosives. Shortly later, Jaum arrived carrying samples of dedlanite. Shortly later, Boomer exploded, destroying the landing craft and damaging the Star Destroyer's force-field. In the meantime, Chewie and Zarro managed to escape on a TIE/sa bomber . Despite Zarro accidentally activating a thermal detonator which destroyed the ship's left-wing, they managed to crash-land the bomber on Andelm IV. [22] While Chewie turned down Zarro's request to stay behind with her people, he still gave her a hug and awarded her a gold medallion he had received for his services during the Battle of Yavin . After departing as friends, Chewie traveled on his A-wing to his homeworld of Kashyyyk .

There, he returned to his village for a family reunion and awarded his child a bandolier. Shortly later, Chewie departed aboard the Millennium Falcon . Meanwhile, Jaum was imprisoned by Commander Kai, who was disgusted by Jaum's greed and his alleged scam. He had the gangster tortured by his IT-O Interrogator . [22] Cymoon 1 New Beetle Species Named for Chewbacca - Seeker Apr 27, 2016 10:02 AM ET New Beetle Species Named for Chewbacca The towering and shaggy Wookiee character Chewbacca from the 'Star Wars' movies has a new namesake: a tiny weevil. Previous Next Chris Pooley (USDA, ARS, EMU) Insects and other creepy crawlies may be tiny, but their lineages are mighty, finds a new study that determined the common ancestor of mites and insects existed about 570 million years ago. The study, published in the latest issue of the journal Science, presents an evolutionary timeline that settles many longstanding uncertainties about insects and related species. It found that true insects first emerged about 479 million years ago, long before dinosaurs first walked the Earth.

Co-author Karl Kjer, a Rutgers entomologist, explained that mites are arthropods, a group that's distantly related to insects. Spiders and crustaceans are also arthropods. Previous Next Wikimedia Commons Spiders such as the huntsman spider can, like mites, trace their lineages back to about 570 million years ago, according to the new study. The researchers believe that the common ancestor of mites, spiders and insects was a water-dweller. Previous Next J. Malik, Wikimedia Commons Millipedes, such as the one shown here, as well as centipedes are known as myriapods. The most recent common ancestor of myriapods and crustaceans lived about 550 million years ago. Again, this "mother of many bugs" would have been a marine dweller. Kjer explained, "You can't really expect anything to live on land without plants, and plants and insects colonized land at about the same time, around 480 million years ago.

So any date before that is a sea creature." Moving forward in time, the most common ancestor of millipedes and centipedes existed a little over 400 million years ago. The leggy body plan has proven to be extremely successful. Previous Next Wikimedia Commons "This is an early insect that evolved before insects had wings," Kjer said. Its ancestry goes back about 420 million years. The common ancestor of silverfish living today first emerged about 250 million years ago. Dinosaurs and the earliest mammals likely would have then seen silverfish very similar to the ones that are alive now. Previous Next Andre Karwath, Wikimedia Commons Dragonflies and damselflies have family histories that go back about 406 million years. Kjer said that such insects looked differently then, however. "For example," he said, "they had visible antennae." Their distant ancestors were among the first animals on earth to fly. Previous Next Wikimedia Commons "Parasitic lice are interesting, because they probably needed either feathers or fur," Kjer said. As a result, they are the relative newbies to this list.

Nonetheless, the researchers believe it is possible that ancestors of today's lice were around 120 million years ago, possibly living off of dinosaurs and other creatures then. Previous Next Wikimedia Commons Crickets, katydids and grasshoppers had a common ancestor that lived just over 200 million years ago, and a stem lineage that goes back even further to 248 million years ago. A trivia question might be: Which came first, these insects or grass? The insects predate the grass that they now often thrive in. Previous Next Gary Alpert, Wikimedia Commons Dinosaur Era fossils sometimes include what researchers call "roachoids," or wing impressions that were made by ancestors to today's roaches, mantids (like the praying mantis) and termites. "Some cockroaches are actually more closely related to termites than they are to other cockroaches," Kjer said, explaining that this makes tracing back their lineages somewhat confusing. He and his colleagues determined that the stem lineage goes back about 230 million years, while the earliest actual cockroach first emerged around 170 million years ago. Previous Next Wikimedia Commons Termites and cockroaches have a tightly interwoven family history.

Termites similar to the ones we know today were around 138 million years ago. Now we often think of termites as pests, but they are good eats for many different animals, which back in the day would have included our primate ancestors. Previous Next Umberto Salvagnin, Wikimedia Commons Flies like houseflies that often buzz around homes belong to the order Diptera, which has a family tree that goes back 243 million years ago. The most recent common ancestor for modern flies lived about 158 million years ago, according to the study. There is little doubt that the earliest humans, and their primate predecessors, had to contend with pesky flies and all of the other insects mentioned on this list. All of these organisms are extremely hardy. The researchers determined that, in the history of our planet, there has only been one mass extinction event that had much impact on insects. It occurred 252 million years ago (the Permian mass extinction), and even it set the stage for the emergence of flies, cockroaches, termites and numerous other creepy crawlies.

Chewbacca | StarWars.com Databank Chewbacca A legendary Wookiee warrior and Han Solo’s co-pilot aboard the Millennium Falcon, Chewbacca was part of a core group of Rebels who restored freedom to the galaxy. Known for his short temper and accuracy with a bowcaster, Chewie also has a big heart -- and is unwavering in his loyalty to his friends. He has stuck with Han through years of turmoil that have changed both the galaxy and their lives. databank HISTORY // FALL OF THE REPUBLIC During the Clone Wars, Chewbacca was one of several individuals from diverse species captured by Trandoshan hunters. Taken against his will to a jungle moon, he was released and hunted for sport. Chewie would not give up without a fight, however, and worked with new ally and fellow captive Ahsoka Tano to stage a revolt. Together, they defeated the Trandoshans and returned to their respective homes. As Wookiees had good relations with Yoda , they welcomed the Jedi Master and clone troopers to Kashyyyk , their homeworld.

During one of the Clone Wars’ final battles, Chewbacca fought against Separatist droids alongside Republic forces -- until the execution of Order 66. In an effort to save Yoda, Chewbacca and fellow Wookiee Tarfful led the Jedi to a secret escape pod and evacuated him from the planet. GALACTIC CIVIL WAR Chewbacca met Obi-Wan Kenobi , who was looking for passage to Alderaan , in the seedy Mos Eisley cantina on Tatooine. As Han Solo’ s loyal friend and co-pilot, he arranged a meeting between the rogue smuggler, the Jedi, and Luke Skywalker . The group reached an agreement on a fee -- in truth, Han was desperate for the money -- and were forced to blast their way past stormtroopers and out of the spaceport aboard the Millennium Falcon . When they reached their destination, the group found that there was no Alderaan left; it had been destroyed by the Empire’ s Death Star , and their ship was soon caught in the doomsday weapon’s tractor beam. With Han and Luke in stormtrooper disguise, Chewie posed as an Imperial prisoner to allow for easy passage inside the space station.

They rescued Princess Leia , who was held captive, and escaped. Later, Chewbacca was at Han’s side in the Millennium Falcon as they saved Luke during the attack on the Death Star. Chewbacca and Han remained with the Rebel Alliance after the Battle of Yavin, and helped establish its new base on the ice planet Hoth . But Han had to pay off Jabba the Hutt , meaning he and Chewie would be forced to leave their friends. Things changed, however, with the arrival of an Imperial probe droid . Han and Chewie engaged it, all but confirming the spy droid was sent by the Empire. When Imperial forces arrived, they made a hasty escape with Leia and C-3PO on the Millennium Falcon and were pursued through an asteroid field. Believing they had lost their Imperial seekers, they landed in Cloud City -- a facility run by Lando Calrissian , an old friend of Han and Chewie. But bounty hunter Boba Fett and the Empire arrived before they did; C-3PO was shot, Han was tortured and frozen in carbonite, and all seemed lost.

Trying to make up for his mistake, Lando freed the remaining Rebels -- and Chewie thanked him with a powerful chokehold -- before they all escaped on the Falcon. With Han held at Jabba’s Palace , Chewbacca was part of the rescue mission hatched by the ace pilot’s friends. He appeared as a captive of the bounty hunter Boushh -- in reality, Leia in disguise. Leia managed to free Han from the carbonite but was quickly captured by Jabba, who didn’t fall for their ruse. Chewbacca was kept in a holding cell, reunited there with Han. The crime lord sentenced the small band to death by Sarlacc , but his underestimation of Luke Skywalker proved to be his undoing. Later, Chewbacca joined Han and friends on the dangerous mission to destroy the new Death Star ’s shield generator, located on the forest moon of Endor . While Chewbacca’s curiosity about a dead animal led to the group’s capture by Ewoks -- as Han said, “Great, Chewie. Always thinkin’ with your stomach.” -- it turned out to be a fortuitous mistake. The Ewoks became integral allies in the Battle of Endor.

When things looked dire, Chewie and two of the furry creatures swung from a vine onto an AT-ST , commandeering the vehicle. Turning the Empire’s weapon against them, Chewbacca and his new companions all but wiped out the Imperial ground forces, allowing the Rebels to destroy the shield generator. THE FIRST ORDER After the Battle of Endor, Chewbacca played a key role in liberating his homeworld of Kashyyyk from Imperial forces. The Wookiee and the Corellian earned renown as New Republic heroes, but the good times were not meant to last. Years later, amid the rise of the First Order , the two found themselves trying to make a semi-honest living in a chaotic galaxy. Chewie and Han’s luck seemed to turn when they recovered their beloved Millennium Falcon, lost years before through a fickle turn of fortune. But the galaxy was once more engulfed by war, and as usual the two partners were in the middle of the trouble.

Related // Trigonopterus chewbacca: Beetle named after Chewbacca from 'Star Wars' — RT America — ZooKeys (@ZooKeys_Journal) April 22, 2016 The flightless weevil beetle "has dense scales on the head and the legs, which reminds the authors of Chewbacca’s dense fur," according to new research published in the journal ZooKeys. The T. chewbacca can be as long as 3.13mm, researchers said, contrasting with the 7-foot-6-inch frame of Chewbacca, played by actor Peter Mayhew in the 'Star Wars' movies. The Wookie-esque beetle isn't the first 'Star Wars'-inspired name in the insect world. According to LiveScience, a kind of Mexican moth is named Wockia chewbacca, an a acorn worm was named Yoda purpurata, and a slime mold beetle is known as Agathidium vaderi.

After a spider&a fish species named after @StarWars characters,we have the Chewbacca beetle Newly discovered beetle species named Chewbacca after 'Star Wars' Wookie | KUTV Newly discovered beetle species named Chewbacca after 'Star Wars' Wookie by Cimaron Neugebauer Scientists name newly discovered beetle species after 'Star Wars' Wookie. (Cropped Photo: David James / Lucas Films / MGN) AA ( KUTV ) -- A newly discovered species of beetle in New Guinea just got one of the coolest science names ever - Chewbacca. Even though the insect is significantly smaller and much less furry than its Star Wars namesake, there was one thing that was similar to the bug and the beloved Sci-Fi character. The find was recently published in the scientific journal ZooKeys. Scientists, who no doubt must be huge "Star Wars" fans, decided to name the insect Trigonopterus chewbacca, because the scales on the weevil looked a lot like the famous Wookiee's fur, according to Livescience , who reported news of the find on an island in New Guinea.

The flightless weevil is apparently a type of beetle that cannot fly and is usually found in a litter of leaves in the forests. The body of the insect is black with hair-like structures on antennae and legs and is 0.13 inches long. Researchers spend 10 days sifting through leaf litter in torrential downpours of rain, according to Livescience. Eventually scientists found enough evidence to represent four new species. The other species names are not nearly as cool though. If you were curious the other names were: T. obsidianus, T. puncticollis and T. silaliensis. Follow us on Twitter @KUTV2News and LIKE us on Facebook for breaking news, updates and more. close Star Wars: The Evolution of the 25 Greatest Alien Species | Den of Geek Search Star Wars: The Evolution of the 25 Greatest Alien Species Lucasfilm has created countless alien species over the years for Star Wars. Here's the story of how 25 of those species evolved over time.

tumblr Almost forty years ago, Luke Skywalker took his first step into a larger world, encountering strange worlds and exotic creatures, and we followed him with fascination as a desert planet soon gave way to a galaxy full of new aliens. Alien life forms, from the bizarre Dugs to almost-human Nightsisters, have always been a big draw for Star Wars fans. The iconic Mos Eisley Cantina scene famously introduced a vast creature cast, which included pseudo-Satanic beings and very large crickets. And in the new animated series, Rebels, the alien Zeb is one of the most important characters. His species, the Lasat, were based on early concept art for Chewbacca, and also bear a resemblance to the original, amphibious Han Solo. In most cases, the memorable creatures from Star Wars began as rough sketches and simple phrases. Tauntauns were snow lizards. The two-mouthed Ithorian was known as Hammerhead, a nickname that entered official material. Some of the designs were made to be worn by people, while others involved puppetry or, in the case of Jabba the Hutt, a combination of both.

Several designs were recycled or re-imagined as Star Wars grew, showing Lucas’ proclivities and style along with the franchise style. Many aliens in Star Wars have tentacles and horns, or both in the case of the Chagrians. Others, like the Mon Calamari, are based on real animals. Hokey they may be, but the fishy heads are part of the charm. Here is a list of the most stand-out alien species from Star Wars, where their designs originated, and why you need to know them to understand current Star Wars canon. This list references both canon and Legends stories, and counts only sentient species capable of higher intelligence. Not animals like the rancor...although they're cool, too. Buy all of your Star Wars movies, books, comics, games, and boxsets here! Jawas Jawas are the first aliens introduced in the Star Wars saga, and after almost forty years, they still remain one of the most mysterious specias in the galaxy far, far away. Known for their hooded cloaks and piercing yellow eyes, Jawas are native to Tatooine and mostly serve as traders on the desert planet, searching the dunes for any scrap that might be of value.

Besides their appearance, these little creatures have an equally foggy in-universe origin. The original Star Wars novel, From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, implies that the Jawas and the Sand People have a possible familial relationship. It's also suggested that the Jawas could be rodent-like and devolved humans. Of course, when it comes to the Jawas, the juries still out. Join Amazon Prime - Watch Thousands of Movies & TV Shows Anytime - Start Free Trial Now Sand People Also known as Tusken Raiders, the Sand People originally appeared in the second draft of Star Wars as Imperial spies deployed to Tatooine to investigate Deak Starkiller, a character that didn't appear in the final cut of the film. In that draft, they had red eyes and drove landspeeders in that draft. Sound designer extraordinaire created the Sand People's distinctive howl from the brays of a donkey. Wookiees Wookies are first described in the 1974 draft of what was then called “The Star Wars,” as “huge gray and furry beasts,” according to J.W. Rinzler’s The Making of Star Wars.

Ralph McQuarrie’s early sketches of Chewbacca have high-set ears and small noses like the Lasat, while the next draft, with its rounded head, is more similar to the final Wookiees that appeared in the films. Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays by Laurent Bonzeru also describes Chewbacca as gray, with “large blue eyes.” Lucas based Chewbacca in part on his Alaskan malamute, Indiana, who would sit in the passenger seat of his car. A bandoleer was part of the early designs and made the character look more technologically advanced. Stuart Freeborn, who sculpted the Chewbacca masks, and George Lucas further refined the look of the physical mask. In The Making of Star Wars, Freeborn says that it was fascinating to make a monster who looked “friendly and nice for a change, instead of being menacing.” Lucas would spend a little time every day changing Chewbacca’s nose. “I kept pulling the nose out and pushing it back in,” he says in the book.

“It was difficult because we were trying to do a combination of a monkey, a dog, and a cat.” Rodians The famous Greedo, with his saucer-dish ears and pimpled green skin, was designed to be one of the more recognizable of the cantina crowd. The cantina creatures in A New Hope were put together in one day by Stuart Freeborn, his wife, son, and six assistants, using George Lucas’s descriptions of Martians, pilots, and space pirates. Greedo was designed as a “Martian,” the green, bug-eyed aliens of Roswell pop culture. Hutts Many fans know that Jabba the Hutt appeared in a deleted scene in A New Hope long before the sluglike mobster appeared as a computer-animated character in the Special Editions. Actor Declan Mulholland substituted for the alien, who most people know from Return of the Jedi. In 1976, Lucas wanted to blue-screen an alien character in, but Fox wouldn’t provide the money he needed. “We actually cut the scene out before we got to the point of shooting the monster part,” Lucas says in The Making of Return of the Jedi by J.W. Rinzler.

Notes on the script of Return of the Jedi describe Jabba as “a repulsively fat sultan-like monster with a maniacal grin.” Phil Tippett developed the final slug-like design. 1980 concept art by Ralph McQuarrie, Nilo Rodis-Jamero, and others show that Jabba was always supposed to be fat, but was changed slightly into an alien with an enormous chin. For the Annotated Screenplays, George Lucas told Laurent Bouzerau that he originally imagined Jabba to be furry. Nilo Rodis-Jamero created a version of Jabba that looked like “literally Orson Welles.” Yoda Yoda is not so much a case of an alien design being used for multiple creatures - instead, as with Ian McCaig using his fellow concept artists’ faces to test out designs for Darth Maul, Yoda reflects his creator. British makeup artist Stuart Freeborn based Yoda’s face partially on himself and partially on Albert Einstein, aiming for a wise look. The female Jedi Master Yaddle, of the same species as Yoda, was based on the same concept art.

According to the now-defunct Star Wars Databank, Iain McCaig produced a concept sketch of Yoda as a child, with a rounder face and white hair. McCaig said that the sketch was inspired by a story of a Tibetan boy who carried his younger brother 25 miles to escape the invading Chinese. Therefore, McCaig wanted to give Yoda/Yaddle a look that conveyed both youth and wisdom for a character George Lucas and Leigh Brackett envisioned in the script as a small, wise, frog- or Muppet-like character. Irvin Kershner envisioned Yoda as eight or nine feet tell, but found that felt too cliche, and instead worked with the earlier ideas about the character being very small. Kershner also decided that Yoda should have “the traditional three fingers” like anthropomorphized animals in comics, he said in an interview with Laurent Bouzereau in The Annotated Screenplays. Gamorreans The Gamorreans, the humanoid pig guards in Jabba’s palace, were originally described as “scaly guards,” with short snouts and green skin. Early concept art shows bug-eyed toothy characters.

During production of Return of the Jedi, Gamorreans were simply known as Pig Guards. The Legends Expanded Universe keeps their piggy traits, making them a relatively primitive and uncultured society - although mathematician Voort saBinring was biologically modified to be as or more intelligent than the average human. Twi’leks There’s always a Twi’lek. Ever since their inception in Return of the Jedi, Twi’leks have been one of the most common species in Star Wars stories. That’s not a bad thing. Twi’leks are graceful and fun, and their multi-colored skins make them visually interesting. The first representative of the species was Jabba the Hutt’s majordomo, Bib Fortuna, and minutes later the dancing girl Oola. In the storyboard for Return of the Jedi, Oola wasn’t always a Twi’lek. In art by Ray Carnon, she is described as the “bird lady,” and appears to be a dark-skinned woman with puffy hair.

In an early draft of the script, Bib Fortuna is “a wizened old man dressed in a dark cloak and a tall hat.” Early art for Fortuna shows a horselike face wearing a top hat, and another with horns sticking straight up. So how did these two become the same, tentacled species? Many monster masks and prosthetics were made for Jabba’s palace. Among them, Rinzler describes “snakeheads,” which may have been referring to both Twi’leks. The later version of Bib Fortuna was designed by Phil Tippett, who gave the species brain tails and pointed teeth. Yuzzums The Ewoks in Return of the Jedi were to be accompanied by a long-legged, fuzzy creature called a Yuzzum, which also appeared in the Expanded Universe as a separate species in the Star Wars: Ewoks television show. The hirsute singer in the band that performs at Jabba’s Palace in the Special Edition is also a Yuzzum. Mon Calamari Admiral Ackbar was not always supposed to be the commander of the Rebel fleet. The three-eyed Ree-Yees mask from Return of the Jedi was originally slated for the role, but George Lucas favored the fish-like Ackbar.

The concept art was displayed as part of a meeting where George Lucas, Richard Marquand, and others chose which aliens would have background roles and which would be more significant. According to The Making of Return of the Jedi, Marquand chose to highlight Ackbar. The concept art by Nilo Rodis-Jamero was simply titled “alien” and showed a bulbous-headed, salmon-colored fellow with a throat pouch. Ewoks The bear-like Ewoks were, as may be obvious from their appearance, originally intended to be Wookiees in Lucas’ early drafts of Return of the Jedi. The army of Wookiees that appears in Revenge of the Sith is the culmination of that plan, many years later. But during the planning for Return of the Jedi, Lucas wanted the Ewoks to be a primitive race, emphasizing the uprising of a species very close to nature against the more mechanical Empire. The Wookiees, already represented by the technologically savvy Chewbacca, were too high-tech. So Lucas changed the Ewoks’ height and made them a different species entirely. The idea of a more primitive society winning over a technological one came in part from real world examples, Lucas said, including the Viet Cong and the American Revolution.

Sullustans The Return of the Jedi novelization described the Sullustans as "a jowled, mouse-eyed creature." But later reference books describe the Sullustans as "jowled, mouse-eared." This is believed to be an error that first appeared in the 1987 Star Wars Sourcebook. Although the planet Sullust was first mentioned in Return of the Jedi -- it's where the Rebel fleet rendezvous before their attack on the second Death Star -- we didn't actually get to see the planet's surface until 2015's Star Wars Battlefront. Neimoidians In a recent article for StarWars.com , Kevin Beentjes described several aliens who had been changed into something new after the initial concept art phase, including the Neimoidians. Beetjes writes that Doug Chiang’s original designs for the Neimoidians were intended to look similar to Separatist battle droids. However, the look of their face was changed when it was decided that they would be brought to life by masked actors instead of animation. The earlier concept for the Neimoidians was used for the Geonosians later in the prequels, in Attack of the Clones.

Gungans Despite Jar Jar Binks, Gungans have a lot of potential. They’re amphibious warriors with alien weapons. They were used as an army in The Clone Wars, too. Their duck-billed faces were modeled not after modern ducks, but after the duck-billed dinosaurs, the hadrosaurs. Early concept art of Gungans by Terryl Whitlatch resembles diminutive, two-legged frogs. That idea was re-used twice in later Star Wars material. In the 2001 video game Galactic Battlegrounds, the design was used for the Glurrgs, a non-sentient species that fills the role of worker drones for the Gungan army. In The Clone Wars, a similar look became the puffed-up General Meebur Gascon. His species is called the Zilkin. Dugs Introduced as the bully Sebulba in The Phantom Menace, Dugs are one of the more unusual species in Star Wars. In part, this is because they weren’t constrained to being portrayed by an actor in a suit. Dugs walk on their forelimbs and manipulate with their legs, giving them a crab-like, low-slung appearance.

Concept art for Sebulba by Terryl Whitlatch shows the many frills and elaborate folds around the character’s ears and neck, and gives Sebulba a brighter purple, mottled coloring. Zabraks Zabraks like Darth Maul and the near-human Nightsister from The Clone Wars were linked far before the show declared that Maul was actually from Dathomir. An image of a red-clothed witch drawn by Iain McCaig was one of the early sketches in the development of Darth Maul’s look, and was later recycled for Mother Talzin in The Clone Wars. Darth Maul’s final appearance was based on a Rorschach blot McCaig made by pressing the sides of an inked page together. Early concept art for Maul had him wearing feathers tied to his head, but the sculptors working on the prosthetics for the character interpreted them as horns, which became a central trait for the species. Dathomiri It’s arguable that the Dathomiri from the Expanded Universe have enough clans and factions to count as a different species entirely, but in Legends, we only have the example of one clan, Mother Talzin’s Nightsisters.

Zabraks and Sith witches became linked once again when The Clone Wars unified the two species in-universe, decreeing that Dathomiri could interbreed with Zabraks, and that Nightsisters kept Zabrak males as captives. This change came about in part because of Darth Maul’s backstory. No longer a native of Iridonia, The Clone Wars established him as a son of Dathomir instead . Talzin retained the red color scheme of the Sith witch character that inspired Darth Maul, while her Nightsister soldiers combine that look with Zabrak tattoos. Chagrians Early concept art by Stian Dahlslett shows Palpatine’s advisor, Mas Amedda, the first representative of the Chagrian species, as an alien with four long horns and two bulbous head-tails similar to Twi’leks’, with the horns tied together. The final design kept two bullish horns and moved the other two to the bottom of the Chagrian’s face. In the Legends Expanded Universe, the Chagrians were an amphibious race, born as tadpoles.

Kaminoans The elegant cloners from Attack of the Clones were “a very deliberate nod to the classic aliens of Close Encounters of the Third Kind," George Lucas said in Mythmaking: Behind the Scenes of Attack of the Clones. In both the film and The Clone Wars, Kaminoans inhabit a moral gray area, creating human clone soldiers with the same technology that Legends canon says they used to keep their own species, decimated by flooding, alive. Lucas also said that their evolutionary ancestors might have been dolphins or salamanders, evident in their gray skins and hairless heads. Close Encounters-inspired aliens, which sound similar to the Kaminoans, also appeared in a 1977 draft of The Empire Strikes Back by George Lucas and Leigh Brackett. They are called Whatnots, live on Cloud City, and carry spears or dart guns. The dart guns would be included in Attack of the Clones as Kaminoan creations. In an earlier drafts, Lando Calrissian was a clone from a planet of clones - another piece developed for Empire that later ended up in Attack of the Clones.

Geonosians That puts Geonosians, like many other designs in Attack of the Clones, among the ranks of the reused and recycled. They still have the long, battle-droid like face, but were made more buglike. Their architecture reflects the insectlike origins too, with the piles of sculpted rock meant to look like termite nests. Early ideas for the Genosians had them change color, like chameleons. In “The Art of Star Wars Episode II,” Doug Chiang says that the color-changing element can still be seen in the design, in the interplay of light and shadow on the aliens’ skins. Geonosis itself was designed to contrast Kamino, rust-colored and desert instead of watery and clean. Togrutas While somewhat similar to Twi’leks in their humanoid appearance, Togruta like Ahsoka set themselves apart by their bright blue and white stripes and red skin. While The Clone Wars showed Togruta with varying colors, the Legends universe held that Togruta skin was red and white to blend in with the striped grass on their homeworld.

Concept art by Dermot Power for Shaak Ti, a Jedi Master of this species, is shown in The Art of Star Wars Episode II and portrays an exotic character with piercings and white horns. Nautolans The green-skinned Nautolans, notable for the Jedi Kit Fisto, who smiled during the Battle of Geonosis, were originally designed as villains. Dermot Power concept art for Attack of the Clones shows a Sith character with stubby green tentacles and small eyes. Lucas requested that the character be re-designed as a Jedi, so Power made Kit Fisto’s face softer, the artist said in The Art of Episode II, although he also wanted Fisto to look “tough enough to look like he could take care of himself.” Although most Nautolans seen in Star Wars have green skin, Legends characters have also sported blue or pinkish hues. Utapauans The ghastly Utapauns, which feature in both Revenge of the Sith and Rebels, are related to the Lurmen by way of replacement. Lurmen were originally supposed to be the residents of Utapau.

However, Lucas so liked the pale, robed look of the aliens Sang Jun Lee designed as background characters on the planet Mustafar that he brought them to the forefront as the aliens Obi-Wan Kenobi speaks to on Utapau. The deep lines on their faces were first envisioned as tattoos, but later became what looks like scarification - appropriate for the fiery environment of Mustafar. Lurmens Another species which found its way into The Clone Wars after a long conceptual journey was the graceful Lurmen, also known as Mygeetans. In 2002, Sang Jun Lee did several concept sketches for alien “lemurs,” which at the time were intended to appear as residents of the planet Mygeeto in Revenge of the Sith. George Lucas spotted an advertisement for a lemur exhibit at the San Francisco Zoo in the early 2000s, Lee said, and Lee’s design did not divert far from the animals’ appearance. Lurmen could travel quickly by rolling into a ball, a trait shared with both Separatist destroyer droids and the Amani species. Lasat Zeb’s species had a long, quiet history before coming to life on the small screen in Rebels.

A Ralph McQuarrie drawing circa 1974 was used by Bill Slavicsek and Daniel Greenberg in the 1988 West End games RPG module “Tatooine Manhunt” for a character named Puggles Trodd, at which point it was decided that the large eyes and small ears were adaptations to the Lasats’ desert environment. These early Lasat had tails and were brown instead of Zeb’s purple. They also lacked the prehensile, quadactyl feet Zeb has in Rebels. Megan Crouse is a staff writer. Newly-Discovered Beetle Named After Chewbacca | The Mary Sue Scientists Name Newly-Discovered Beetle After Chewbacca by Charline Jao | 4:24 pm, April 29th, 2016 Scientists recently discovered four new weevil beetle species in New Guinea. They were given the names, Trigonopterus obsidianus, Trigonopterus puncticollis, Trigonopterus silaliensis, and Trigonopterus chewbacca. The T.

chewbacca is flightless, 0.13 inches in length, and has hair-like structures on its antennae and legs. In their officia l report (where you can get a closer look at T. chewy), authors Matthew H. Van Dam, Raymond Laufa, Alexander Riedel introduce the different species and explain the resemblance they saw: This epithet is a noun in apposition and based on the likeable fictional character Chewbacca in George Lucas’ Star Wars movies, portrayed primarily by Peter Mayhew. This species has dense scales on the head and the legs, which reminds the authors of Chewbacca’s dense fur. But is the weevil loyal and brave? Will he fight by you, help you when you’re in trouble, and cry out in the world’s saddest lamenting roar when… anyway, it’s early to say whether the beetle will live up to this name. This isn’t the first time a species has been named after the Wookiee because, well, a lot of scientists are huge geeks.

Discovery News points out that there’s a fuzzy Mexican moth (Wockia chewbacca) and a wasp (Polemistus chewbacca) that also has his name, in addition to other Star Wars-inspired names like the acorn worm Yoda purpurata or the trilobite Han solo. The more I look at the beetle the more… cute it is? What do you think? New species of weevil beetle is named Chewbacca | Daily Mail Online comments In the Star Wars universe, he is an 8ft tall, fur covered alien that co-pilots the Millennium Falcon, but on Earth Chewbacca is a rather more diminutive creature. Biologists have named a new species of flightless beetle after the fictional Wookiee due to the dense fur-like scales around its head and legs. The creature, officially named Trigonopterus chewbacca, is a black weevil beetle discovered during an expedition to New Britain in Papua New Guinea. The tiny black weevil beetle discovered in leaf litter in New Britain, Papau New Guinea, with fur-like scales on its head and legs.

The researchers say it reminded them of the dense fur on the Star Wars character Chewbacca and so have named the tiny creature after the Wookiee Unlike the towering Wookiee from the films, the Chewbacca beetle measures around one tenth of an inch (2.78mm to 3.13 mm). RELATED ARTICLES Share 33 shares And rather than spending its time flying the Millennium Falcon and helping Han Solo escape from scrapes on their adventures, it spends its time scurrying in the leaf litter on the forest floor. THE SPECIES NAMED AFTER STAR WARS CHARACTERS Yoda purpurata - a deep sea worm Han solo - an extinct species of trilobite found in southern China Aptostichus sarlaac - a species of trapdoor spider Tetramorium jedi - a Madagascan ant Darthvaderum - an Australian arboreal mite Polemistus chewbacca - a wasp Agathidium vaderi - a species of beetle After spending ten days sifting through leaf litter and foliage, the researchers spotted the beetles living in the forests that cover the limestone karsts on the island.

Matthew Van Dam, a zoologist at the Bavarian State Collection for Zoology in Munich, Germany, and his colleagues who discovered the species, said: 'This epithet is a noun in apposition and based on the likeable fictional character Chewbacca in George Lucas' Star Wars movies, portrayed primarily by Peter Mayhew. 'This species has dense scales on the head and the legs, which reminds the authors of Chewbacca's dense fur. 'Despite many days of searching for Trigonopterus in primary forest on New Britain, the weevils were quite scarce in comparison with similar localities on the New-Guinean mainland. 'This scarcity may be due to the local conditions or seasonal effects, as orographic precipitation formed early in the day and continued into the evening during our stay.' In the Star Wars films Chewbacca is an eight feet tall, fur covered Wookiee that co-pilots the Millennium Falcon with smuggler Han Solo (pictured). The new beetle is somewhat smaller at just a tenth of an inch The researchers found three other new species of beetle during their search trhough the forests that cover the limestone karsts on New Britain.

Among these were Trigonopterus puncticollis (pictured) The beetle is not the first creature to be named after George Lucas' famous Wookiee. A wasp discovered in 1983 was named Polemistus Chewbacca alongside another called Polemistus vaderi. Many other creatures including spiders - such as Aptostichus sarlaac, after the sarlacc monster in Return of the Jedi - and sea worms - like Yoda purpurata - have also been named after characters from the Star Wars films. During their expedition to New Britain, the researchers found three other species of black weevil beetle on the island. They too were found in the forest growing on a limestone karst. In total they found just 18 individuals of the new weevil beetles. The other new species were named Trigonopterus puncticollis, Trigonopterus obsidianus and Trigonopterus silaliensis.

Another of the new species identified by the researchers is Trigonopterus obsidianus (pictured), which refers the appearance of its shell, which is similar to the polished mineral obsidian The purple deep sea worm above was named Yoda purpurata, after the Jedi knight from the Star Wars films However, in their paper on the discoveries, published in the open access journal ZooKeys, the researchers said the habitat where the beetles were found is under threat. They said: 'Presumably, there are many additional new species to be found on this island. 'Unfortunately, large expanses of low-elevation forests in New Britain have been converted to oil-palm plantations, highlighting the significance of documenting the insect fauna before the remaining forests are gone.' The trapdoor spider above was named Aptostichus sarlaac, after the sarlacc monster in Return of the Jedi

Question: In the 'Star Wars' films, what species is 'Chewbacca'?
Answer: 'WOOKIE'